The cybercrime landscape is evolving fast. The “Nigerian” email scams are now old. Cybercriminals are smarter and more organized now — almost functioning like professionals. In fact, there’s sort of a parallel universe where they all operate in a very corporate-like manner. And that parallel universe is called the Dark Web.
Essentially, the Internet can be categorized into three parts.
- The surface web, which includes your ‘regular’ websites — the kinds that just show up on web searches. For example, you type, Dog Videos and links to a bunch of dog videos on YouTube shows up. YouTube, in this case, is an example of the surface web.
- The deep web, which shows up in web searches but requires you to log in to view specific content. For example, your Internet banking page or your Netflix subscription.
- Then comes the dark web.
The dark web is part of the Internet not visible to search engines and requires the use of an anonymizing browser called Tor to be accessed. The dark web offers anonymity and hence, is the hub for all sorts of illicit activities in today’s Internet age. The kind of content you find in the dark web include:Credit card details, stolen login credentials for something as serious as Internet banking accounts to something as trivial as Netflix or DraftKings.Contact details/communication platform for striking deals with hitmen, drug dealers, weapon dealers, hackers, etc.Marketplace to buy malicious codes to help corrupt or jam IT systems and even RaaS (Ransomware as a service)
All the above and more, for a fee, of course. In short, the dark web is like the underworld of the Internet. So, how does it concern you? Well, your data could be on the dark web as well. If your data has been compromised, the dark web is the place where it is traded. It could be sold by miscreants to miscreants, who can later hack into your system or extort money from you to prevent a data leak and so on.
What can be the implications for your organization if you are on the dark web? If your data is on the dark web, it puts your business and your customers at risk. For example, as a business, you possess a lot of the Personally Identifiable Information (PII) of your customers, which, if leaked can even shut down your business by attracting lawsuits that require you to shell out large sums of money in the form of fines or settlements. It can also cause serious damage to your brand, resulting in the loss of customers and new business.
So, what you can do? With dark web monitoring services, you will know if there has been a data breach. Let’s say you come to know your e-commerce website’s user IDs, and passwords have been stolen, or your customer’s credit card data has been leaked via your database. You can take the necessary steps to mitigate a possible ransomware attack or data leak before it happens. But that’s reactive. That’s damage control after the damage has been done. While dark web monitoring services can warn you if your data has been compromised, here are a few things that you can do to keep your data safe in the first place.
- Password Hygiene
- Train your Staff
- BYOD Policies
- Access Permissions and Roles
Being exposed in the dark web can be exhausting, scary and life-threatening to a small or medium-sized business. Teaming up with a managed service provider (MSP) who specializes in cybersecurity or offers dark web monitoring services can help keep you safe. Keep your data out of the dark.
